Charity fundraiser Carol Hartley named Rochdale Woman of the Year 2012

Cheers rang out through Rochdale town hall as Carol Hartley, a fundraiser who helps needy children in Eastern Europe, was announced as the 2012 winner and the 20th Rochdale Woman of the Year at a special luncheon.

A fundraiser who has helped needy children in Eastern Europe for 17 years has been crowned the new Rochdale Woman of the Year.

Cheers rang out through Rochdale town hall as Carol Hartley was announced as the 2012 winner and the 20th Rochdale Woman of the Year at a special luncheon.

Since 1995 Carol has been the co-ordinator of the Rochdale branch of the Samaritan’s Purse Operation Christmas Child appeal, which sends shoeboxes full of goods to orphans in Belarus and other poor parts of the world.

The parcels contain both necessities such as clothing and treats such as small toys and sweets.

She also set up The Belarus Fund, helping orphaned children in Belarus, and the Borivos Abandoned Babies Home with her friends Alan and Janet Bridgewater.

The friends visited the country in 2002 to work on a summer camp for young people affected by radiation from the Chernobyl disaster in 1986, an explosion at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, and they have been returning ever since.

Carol, from Heywood, said after receiving her award from Springhill Hospice chairman Christine Webb: “I am shaking. I didn’t expect this award.

“I set up The Belarus Fund with a team and this award is for them.

“My work for Operation Christmas Child started when I collected six shoeboxes from a brownie pack.

“And last year 8,500 boxes were collected on Heywood and Rochdale.

“They all go to children in Eastern Europe.”

Carol joins an elite set of winners including Charlotte Kiszko, who was awarded

in recognition of her years of struggle to overturn the wrongful conviction of murder of her son Stefan, and Genetics, Enzymes, Metabolism Appeal founder Karen Hoather.

Previous winner Anne Needham, who was recognised with the award for her fundraising achievements for Christie Hospital, dedicated her role over the past year to her daughter Liz who died aged 32 following her battle against breast cancer.

Also at the Women of Rochdale Luncheon, raising money for Springhill Hospice, it was announced that Mrs Webb would be retiring from her role as hospice chief executive in September.

She was presented with a floral arrangement from longest serving Women of Rochdale Committee member Coun Jane Gartside.

Entertainment was provided at the luncheon for an audience of 300 women by Chester town crier David Mitchell.

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